Good English speakers are a rarity these days….

If you look around, you would find thousands of people claiming that they can communicate “well” in the English language. Most of them are young professionals like I am, working in diversified fields from electronics and power generation, to software development, to mechanical design. However, once you start a conversation with them, you are quick to realize that beyond a certain depth and calibre, they lack that punch and, weaknesses in their spoken English become protuberant.

They make basic grammatical errors, glaring pronunciation mistakes; poor sentence constructions and their lack of vocabulary would probably make a school kid look like a Wordsworth!! Most of them cannot even express a simple thought into a few words with adequate clarity. However, ironically, when you ask them about their favourite sources of entertainment, they would choose a host of English movies, western music, and foreign novels, which in normal circumstances should have augmented their command over the English language. I just wonder sometimes that the pressure of social and professional expectations forces such people to belie themselves, but to be honest, such acts expose their weakness even more.

I am not carping on young English-speaking individuals in our country. At the same time, I feel that instead of portraying an image of themselves which they are not, people should cogitate honestly on self weaknesses and improve their English-speaking skills by observing benchmark individuals - Karan Thapar, Pranoy Roy, Harsha Bhogle, Ravi Shastri, N Vishwanathan, Satyajit Ray (interview archives), Amartya Sen, Arnab Goswami and John Dykes on television. Believe me, if somebody tries to emulate the speaking prowess of these men, they would not be flogging a dead horse. At the same time, I do not advocate meaningless rant either, but whatever they speak should be technically perfect, even if the vocabulary used is not bombastic.

My philosophy is, if you are speaking a language, then you should speak it well. In this tough era of competition, communication skills separate the good from the best, and among communication skills, good English-speaking is right at the helm. Poor oratory is an anathema, and would continue to be so in the near and distant future. Even then, good English speakers are like a spot of diamond in a ton of coal. In testing times like this, I expect young India to rise to the occasion and be counted!!